Panza Reflects on NYRA Tenure as New Chapter Awaits

For Martin Panza, it was time.

After practically eight years because the director of racing on the largest and most complicated circuit within the nation, he was able to step down because the senior vp of racing operations for the New York Racing Affiliation and benefit from the monetary fruits and freedom he had earned throughout a profession within the racing trade that has spanned about 35 years.

“It has been an honor to work right here with NYRA, however for me it was time to take one other step in life and begin one other chapter,” the 58-year-old Panza mentioned. 

Panza introduced in early August that he’ll relinquish his place on the Oct. 31 finish of the Belmont Park fall meet, and although NYRA’s keep on the Elmont, N.Y., monitor has been lengthened by a weekend to accommodate Breeders’ Cup simulcast wagering, he might be sticking along with his unique plans.

“I am not extending my contract,” he mentioned with fun.

As Panza enters the house stretch of his days at NYRA, there’s a mixture of feelings, beginning with some melancholy emotions.

“There are lots of people and associates I’ll miss,” Panza mentioned, “and what I will miss most in regards to the job is writing and filling races. I have been doing that for 34 years and it will likely be attention-grabbing to see if I will really feel the identical method six months from now.”

But there’s additionally some aid at placing behind him, not less than for some time, the relentless, 24/7 pressures of a place through which he was tasked with the practically inconceivable job of satisfying the wants and needs of his bosses at NYRA, its board of administrators, a gradual group of not less than 130 various trainers with greater than 1,600 horses on the grounds of the group’s three tracks, horsemen’s teams, jockeys, regulators, governing our bodies, and a numerous variety of house owners, breeders, and followers.

“In any barn space there might be trainers who like what you do or don’t love what you do. It would not matter the place you’re. You attempt to deal with individuals pretty and be constant and attempt to observe the foundations and convey integrity to the method. That is all anybody can do. Give everybody a good shake,” Panza mentioned. “There are all the time issues and a few individuals count on this place to unravel them, however there are some issues that may’t be solved. There’s not a straightforward reply. If there was, we might have solved it.”

And, suffice it to say, that record of entities with a vested curiosity within the sport doesn’t cease there, with every having every day significantly extra solutions, calls for, requests, and complaints than compliments. Collectively it is that inherent mixture of pressures and pleasure which are rolled into an typically thankless but extremely vital and visual management place within the racing trade that another person will fill within the close to future.

“This is not a job for the faint-hearted,” Panza mentioned. “One of many hardest components of this job just isn’t solely the amount of belongings you cope with every day, however how totally different they’re. You’re coping with plenty of totally different points, and it is such as you go residence at evening and you’re mentally exhausted. I’ve plenty of expertise in coping with all these points however there have been occasions after I would say, ‘Oh my God.’ There’s that pile of labor right here. There’s that pile there, and you’re coping with 15 or 16 totally different issues. Once I labored at Hollywood Park that was not the case, however at NYRA there are plenty of various things occurring while you run three racetracks year-round.

“Even if you find yourself on trip otherwise you take days off, your cellphone remains to be ringing and there are nonetheless emails and texts coming in. I have been doing this a very long time and, belief me, there are occasions after I want I wasn’t leaving however on the identical time, it was time to go away.”

Panza is leaving at an important juncture in NYRA’s historical past. In the midst of the following few years, points equivalent to renovation at Belmont Park, the destiny of Aqueduct Racetrack, coping with the arrival of sports activities betting in New York State, sharing the Belmont Park complicated with an enviornment for the NHL’s New York Islanders and live shows, and rebuilding on-track attendance amidst the specter of COVID-19 are among the many priorities that have to be addressed.

There’s additionally planning for the eventual return of the Breeders’ Cup to New York for the primary time since 2005 as soon as renovations at Belmont Park are accomplished. NYRA CEO and president Dave O’Rourke mentioned within the present version of BloodHorse journal that his timetable for internet hosting the occasion is between 2025-27.

“It was time for me to go and on the identical time for NYRA, it isn’t the worst factor on this planet to usher in somebody new who could have contemporary concepts,” Panza mentioned. “Hopefully that individual will maintain among the good improvements in place. To Dave O’Rourke’s credit score, there is a good staff in place right here that does the perfect they will beneath the circumstances they face. Now we have a 17-person board of administrators with a wealth of data that has some titans of American trade who actually care about racing. That is an asset for NYRA that not many, if any, tracks have. To have them in a room attempting to unravel issues is an amazing plus for NYRA and whomever takes this job to have the ability to decide their brains.”

Whereas Panza is fast to share the credit score for enhancements throughout his eight-year tenure, he leaves a racing operation in a lot better form than it was eight years in the past when NYRA was beneath state management and its franchise to conduct was surrounded with query marks. Each day purses are about 25% larger now. In the course of the 2013 Saratoga Race Course meet, maiden particular weight races had a handbag of $80,000. They have been price 25% extra at $100,000 this summer time.

“I feel that slightly than say I am leaving NYRA in a greater spot, I would favor to say I left my mark,” mentioned Panza, who got here to NYRA after working for 20 years at Hollywood Park and rising to the place of vp of racing and racing secretary. “I feel I strengthened NYRA in some areas and improved the standard of racing, however we had the assets to do this so the timing was proper as a result of we bought the VLT machines and instantly there was extra purse cash. I feel we have taken a conservative method, so the purse account is in fine condition and we have definitely strengthened the model.”

Three of the primary marks Panza is leaving on NYRA could be the introduction of the “Large Day” bundling of a number of main stakes on a single day, the creation of the Turf Triple for 3-year-old males and fillies, and the each day carding of applications based mostly largely on races within the situation e book slightly than extras.

Panza was on the job lower than a yr when he addressed NYRA’s decades-old downside of attempting to draw massive crowds for the Belmont Stakes (G1) in these years when a Triple Crown was not on the road.

His response was to launch the “Large Day” idea. Particularly, he moved the Metropolitan Handicap (G1) from its conventional Memorial Day spot to the Belmont Stakes Day card as one in every of 10 stakes that afternoon, 9 of them graded with six grade 1s, an unprecedented array for a non-Breeders’ Cup card.

Helped by California Chrome  ‘s thwarted 2014 Triple Crown bid, the concept was a smashing success from the outset with a crowd of 102,199 and a record total handle of a little more than $150 million. Seven years later, that figure remains NYRA’s all-time best handle and even though Panza watched Triple Crown sweeps in 2015 and 2018, it was the 2014 Belmont Stakes that produced his most cherished day of racing at NYRA.

“When American Pharoah   won the Triple Crown (in 2015) I had tears in my eyes but the 2014 Belmont will always stick out to me. As a team we created something and we crushed records,” Panza said. “We blew the doors off Belmont Stakes records and that told me that packaging the stakes was the right thing to do. I remember leaving the track that night and feeling it was a great accomplishment.”

With imitation serving as the sincerest form of flattery, since then every major racetrack has embraced the “Big Day” concept for its most popular days of racing and Panza has geared NYRA’s stakes schedule to have one of them a month at Belmont Park and Aqueduct Racetrack.

“There’s tradition in the game, but the game is constantly changing, and it’s not always easy to create change because you open yourself up for criticism. I think the days of graded stakes every Saturday and Sunday and people coming to the races for them doesn’t happen anymore. I long for that as much as any of the longtime fans, but it doesn’t happen,” Panza said. “The big days have been a positive, we’ve brought some high-powered horses here, and every year we’re breaking a record at Saratoga in some fashion, so I think it’s strengthened the quality of racing.”

Panza launched the Turf Triple in 2019, adding a total of four new turf stakes for 3-year-olds to the existing Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T) and Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T). The three races for males, each worth $1 million this year, matched the distances of the legs of the dirt Triple Crown. The three races for fillies were worth $700,000 each, bringing the value of the series to $5.1 million. With purses like that, the races proved to be quite popular with horsemen not only in New York, but around the world.

The Sept. 18 card at Belmont Park with the series-ending Jockey Club Derby Stakes and Jockey Club Oaks Stakes handled a total of $18 million in wagering, compared to a $11.15 million handle the following Saturday.

“I hope NYRA will continue with the Turf Triple. We’ve only run it in its entirety twice due to the pandemic so it’s very much in its infancy, but the timing of it works,” Panza said. “There was a void in turf races for 3-year-olds and NYRA had the resources to fill it and capitalize on it. Everything has to start someplace and I believe the races have generated good handles and quality fields. I’m thankful we were able to create some new events, which in today’s era is not the easiest thing to do.”

In his formative years as a racing executive, Panza received tutoring from Eual Wyatt at Hollywood Park, which instilled in him an appreciation for creating a functional and reliable condition book of races.

“My philosophy is write a good condition book and make it go. It allows trainers to medicate their horses for a race and owners from out-of-town to make travel plans. You’re not going to make every race go, but at places like Saratoga we got pretty close to 85% or 90% when the weather was cooperating,” Panza said. “I always believed the racing office should control the program and when you start writing 20 or 30 extras a day you are not controlling the program. I tried to bring that element to the organization. I learned to never be afraid. Write the book and fill your races. When you control your program and product, you build the brand. Unfortunately that concept has slipped at racetracks these days.”

Aside from the rewarding elements of the job, there was also frustration on a regular basis.

“My biggest frustration was that regulators have their hands tied today compared to 30 or 40 years ago and they are probably underfunded,” Panza said. “So you have a regulator who is in charge of the integrity of the game and policing the game and they are grossly underfunded. That makes it frustrating as the head of racing operations to look at that end and see that we need some help. There’s a lot to police. So there have been challenges on that end in New York because by the structure of NYRA things move slowly, sometimes because we’re waiting for state approval. We have to jump through hoops other tracks do not. There were things we needed to do but it took a lot of time to get it done. It’s a big ship and it took time to turn it.

“You have a rule book in New York that probably needs to be rewritten. You have rules in there that are 50 or 60 years old and need to be cleaned up. The regulators have done a good job and they are capable people but I’m sure they feel frustrations as well as we do.”

At the moment, Panza has yet to decide on when or where he intends to return to the work force. He’s happily awaiting his first prolonged stretch of free time with no obligations hanging over his head since his college days, and he’s amassed a solid enough bank account to support himself for quite a while.

Instead, he’ll spend the next week and a half traveling to Del Mar as a member of the Breeders’ Cup Choice Committee after which will return to New York to tidy up some free ends and clear out his workplace for a remaining day at NYRA that comes on a date when the weird turns into the standard.

“It is going to be an odd day, however I suppose it needs to be as a result of it is Halloween,” Panza mentioned about his Oct. 31 farewell. “The good factor about racing and any racetrack is that nobody is irreplaceable. The present will go on the following day. For me, I am trying ahead to the day without work, so I am trying ahead to the thirty first, however I’ll miss the individuals right here, the workplace crew and folks I’ve labored with for the final eight years. Dave has a great administration staff right here that cares about racing they usually care about NYRA. The best way they blended the ADW (NYRA Bets) with tv was good and it strengthened their product. I’ll miss this place however the good factor is that I can all the time come to Saratoga and Belmont.”

After all, sooner or later it will likely be totally different. As an alternative of getting a mountain of issues to unravel throughout his subsequent journey to the Spa, Panza can relax and luxuriate in a carefree day on the races.

In any case these years, it is lastly time for that to occur.